On the fence about how to feel regarding an IndyCar road race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway? Feeling overly positive and need a sprinkle of negativity in your coffee? Or vice versa? Here’s some potential upsides and downsides of the first race to be held next May. We’ll start with the positives first. Feel free to add more in the comments.

POSITIVE ARGUMENTS

A needed title sponsor that won’t affect the Indianapolis 500. The day the Indianapolis 500 adds a title sponsor, it becomes just another race. This gives Corporate America a shot to say it sponsors an IndyCar race at Indianapolis, and isn’t “the bad guy” who will forever be known as “the sponsor that took over naming rights for the ‘500.”

Track upgrades. The Speedway has pledged to make improvements based on the feedback of drivers Graham Rahal and Ryan Briscoe, who tested there earlier this month. If it’s a better track, even more reason this race could be great. Consider too, the Dallara DW12 chassis has spiced up races at otherwise dull road courses Barber Motorsports Park and Sonoma Raceway – why not at the Speedway?

Marketing bonanzas. A points and/or cash prize for a sweep of the road course race and the ‘500? All-star wild card entries for one or both events? A test on the next level of the ladder for anyone who wins a Mazda Road to Indy road race? Frankly the opportunities are endless for cross-promotion between the two events. Additionally, thinking from a corporate perspective, it’s double the chances to entertain clients in corporate suites and show the variety IndyCar has to offer.

A potential Mazda Road to Indy ladder weekend. For anyone who’s been to the Night Before the 500 at Lucas Oil Raceway Park with Pro Mazda and USF2000 on the docket, it feels like a night at a high school football game. It’s cozy, comfortable with intense on-field action. But it ain’t the big show. For the lower two rungs on the ladder, the cars aren’t able to run the Speedway oval because of skinny tires, not enough power and downforce. This could give them the opportunity to race at the pro-sized stadium and at speeds and a form of racing – road course racing – they are familiar with.

My take: All I want is for the race to have a chance to be successful instead of dismissing it in advance. If it proves a bad proposition, either from an optics or business standpoint, then you dump it. But otherwise, it’s here, and ideally can grow from its inaugural running.

Are you expecting a better than normal tax refund? Did you get a very nice bonus from your company due to the new tax cut?

Well, if you have a good chunk of change hanging around and potentially can be in Monaco on May 11, you can have a chance to bid on the 1993 McLaren-Ford MP4/8A that the late Ayrton Senna drove in — and won — that year’s Monaco Grand Prix.

We’re not just talking about any race winner. It’s also the same car Senna won his sixth Monaco Grand Prix, and the chassis bears the number six.

It’s also the same car Senna piloted to that season’s F1 championship (his third and final title before sadly being killed the next year) and is the first McLaren driven by Senna that’s ever been sold or put up for auction.

The famed Bonhams auction house is overseeing the sale of the car.

“Any Grand Prix-winning car is important, but to have the golden combination of both Senna and Monaco is a seriously rare privilege indeed,” Bonhams global head of motorsport, Mark Osborne, told The Robb Report.

“Senna and Monaco are historically intertwined, and this car represents the culmination of his achievements at the Monegasque track. This is one of the most significant Grand Prix cars ever to appear at auction, and is certainly the most significant Grand Prix car to be offered since the Fangio Mercedes-Benz W196R, which sold for a world record at auction.”

How much might you need? You might want to get a couple of friends to throw in a few bucks as well.